CMLL Firings

La Mascara & Maximo have been fired from CMLL for their roles in destroying Ultimo Guerrero’s car on Friday morning in incident captured by video, according to SuperLuchas. (I was told the same this morning, but was unable to confirm it.) Maximo is currently the CMLL heavyweight champion. La Mascara is CMLL’s current CMLL Light Heavyweight champion. Neither of those belts mean all that much. Both are free agents and would be obvious signings by AAA, but pending civil and criminal lawsuits may stand in the way. CMLL has made no public statement on this situation as of Saturday afternoon (and may not until Monday).

Mascara is still being advertised for tonight’s show in Arena Coliseo, but will not work that or any other shows for CMLL. Maximo is additionally advertised as being on the annual DragonMania show next Saturday, a tag match with Marco opposite Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero of all people, but probably will not work that show either. AAA has a previously scheduled TV taping on Friday in Mexico City, and they theoretically would be free to work that show.

This all stems from the death of Brazo de Oro and the future of the CMLL in house union. While the organization is usually quickly referred to as a wrestler’s union, it’s kind of not either: SuperLuchas points out it technically represents a different group of people and the head of the union is led by someone appointed by CMLL head Paco Alonso (instead of actually controlled by the people who work there, like a normal union.) Brazo de Oro had run the union for the last couple decades, and there had always been quiet rumors of corruption and favoritism, but no one wanting to speak publicly about it for fear of reprisal. Those who disagreed with the union felt it supported management more than the wrestlers, took bribes to get around drug tests, and generally stole from the wrestlers, but there was nothing they could really do about it.

Nitro is currently technically head of the union – he had a role with the group and was next in succession when Brazo de Oro passed. La Mascara wanted to take over his father’s role in the union, fitting the dissenter’s sense that the union was more a Alvarado family business than something representing them. There was a meeting on Thursday where the future of the union was talked about, and Ultimo Guerrero said negative things about Brazo de Oro, maybe voicing some of those complaints, and possibly said some negative things about La Mascara replacing him. La Mascara and Maximo were there. The Alvarados were angry, and smashed up Ultimo Guerrero’s car.

It’s not clear Ultimo Guerrero even wanted to be head of the union himself, but saying negative things about the union and paying a price was the reason everyone had stayed quiet about it until now. In the end, it’s still Paco Alonso who gets to decide who’s head of this union and it’s not clear who he’ll pick. It’s also Paco Alonso who gets to pick who’s working for CMLL, and he’s decided La Mascara and Maximo will no longer work there.

Ultimo Guerrero indicated on Facebook he’s going to press charges. That’s a fair response to what happened, but also complicates the next step for La Mascara & Maximo. AAA is absolutely going to want to sign them. They desperately want names. Latin Lover revealed he was contacted by Vampiro about coming back a few weeks ago, and it’s been clear they’ve been looking to bring in starts this year to offset the losses with not a lot of success. It would be perfect timing for Maximo & Mascara to debut this coming Friday on their Mexico City taping, but would risk very bad press given this situation. It’s unclear if AAA is really worried about bad press at this point. (There were also rumors of WWE being interested in La Mascara last year. That might be something he’ll be looking into again.) Psycho Clown may also be facing legal charges since he was part of the incident.

CMLL owns the trademarks to La Mascara, Maximo Sexy and Los Ingobernables. They were in a protracted fight for simply “Maximo” with a non wrestling business, did not get it, and that’s why Maximo Sexy had the awkward name change. He could make another change, and La Mascara had already suggested changing his name to something Brazo de Oro related.

This situation may end up sucking in a lot more than these three people. He’s not been identified because he’s not as big a name as his cousins, but I’ve been told Robin was part of this as well. He may be fired, or he may just quit to go along with his family (that sort of jump worked out a lot for Argenis & a little bit for Argos.) Brazo de Plata is unlikely to return to CMLL, as had been his plan – he’s going to stay loyal to his family. You can keep spiraling it from there – how does this affect La Mascara’s great friend Rush? The rest of Rush’s family? Negro Casas with his son in law involved? Two main event CMLL luchadors being fired would be big in itself, but this has the potential to really change the landscape of lucha libre.

That video out there changes everything. It’s no surprised it got passed around and leaked after it was taken, but it was taken in the first place. I made a mistake yesterday – CMLL’s parking garage is public, but there are private restricted areas in there, and that’s where the incident looks to be taking place. Whoever took that video probably had a good idea it was going to happen, and wanted it on film for their own reasons. This is just a story, maybe even an urban legend without that video.